Monsters
by HaveBookWillTravel
Summary: After the Winter War, the former rulers of Hueco Mundo are forced to hide in the Material World. When Harribel meets a human not quite like the others, her interest is piqued, and as she delves deeper into his past, she realizes that Hollows aren't the only monsters in the world. Harribel/OC, rating for language, adult situations, drug use/abuse. First fanfiction, so do your worst
1. Staying Under the Radar

**Author's Note: **So...I've been reading fanfiction for a long time, but I've never had the courage to post anything on here. But now, well, now I guess I found the courage. This'll be my first foray into the flighty temptress we call fanfiction, and it will be about Harribel's life after the Winter War, but before she was captured by the Vandenreich, which might not even happen in my story.

So the story is set about three months after the end of the whole Aizen debacle, and mainly features a romance between Espada Tres, Tia Harribel, and a seemingly inconspicuous mortal man. It's better than it sounds (I hope), but here's the first chapter, in case anyone wants to read it.

**Warnings: **There will be alcohol and controlled substance use/abuse. There will be adult situations (nothing too graphic, but definitely alluded to). There will _definitely_ be swearing. Yes, swearing up, down, left, right, and any other direction you could care to look in this fanfiction. You have been suitably warned.

**Disclaimer: **Sorry, but I don't own any rights to the _Bleach_ franchise, and if I did...well, the world would be a much different place with a human-manufactured zombie virus, now, wouldn't there? MWAHAHAHAHA!

* * *

**Chapter 1: Staying Under the Radar**

* * *

"Yo, Bartender! We need another round over here!"

Tia Harribel sighed heavily as she poured the martini she was making into a glass and handed it to the drunken man in front of her before moving to go help the other drunken man to her left. She briefly wondered if being found out and executed by shinigami would be better than this hell she called work.

It had all started with the Battle of Fake Karakura Town. Every one of her comrades had been taken out of the fight, some for good, and Aizen himself had struck her down. The shinigami sweeper teams hadn't found her, thankfully, because most of the reiryoku in her spirit body had been converted to her regenerative powers and cut her reiatsu from the third-strongest in Hueco Mundo to little more than a pre-Menos hollow.

Eventually, she was able to move about, and found the Primera, Starrk, his fraccion Lilynette, and her own fracciones, and discovered the Urahara Shoten. The former captain there knew much about exile, having been one for over a hundred and fifty years, and he sympathized with the misplaced Arrancar. He created each of them a gigai, manufactured the correct papers necessary for life as a human, and got each of them a job. Except for Lilynette, of course; she was too young-looking for anything but school.

The former soldiers of Aizen's army slowly fell into a routine, and when Grimmjow and Ulquiorra showed up, they eventually fit into the jigsaw puzzle as well. And so, three months after that disastrous battle, Tia found herself working at a nightclub in the downtown district of Karakura called the Dankee Panchuru. About as subtle as Grimmjow, she thought to herself sourly before moving about to take the order of the loud woman who was practically screaming in her ear for a Cosmo.

As she stretched out her body to reach the glass on the tall shelf behind the bar, she glanced in the large mirror and narrowed her eyes at the man reaching over the bar with eager hands toward her rump. Oh, hell no! thought Harribel, turning to beat the man senseless. She could make out the sweaty bald spot on the top of the man's head and the rumpled three-piece he wore with vivid clarity while she contemplated whether or not this greasy fat man was worth risking the remaining Arrancars' anonymity.

Just as she was about to snatch the offending hand and break a few fingers, the man was jerked backwards. Harribel's eyes sought out the man behind the pervert, who was holding the dirty fellow up by the nape of his suit-jacket's collar and giving him a stern look, as a father would give to his toddler after catching them with their hands in the cookie jar.

"Now, it's not nice to grope the bartender," the new arrival told the first man. "Get on outta here before I let her snap your nose." The perv glanced nervously at Harribel, and whatever he saw in her eyes was enough to send him running.

While her 'savior' watched the man go, Harribel was inspecting this new human, wondering just what kind of genetic defect he possessed to not be a drunken slob like the rest of the males in the tightly-packed club or else grinding up on the lascivious females on the dance floor while the heavy bass of the techno music blared from speakers.

If she were asked to describe him in one word, it would be scruffy. Everything about him, from his shaggy mop of chestnut hair and scraggly, almost-but-not-quite beard to the lowered eyelids and crow's feet beneath his eyes (so pale blue they were nearly colorless) simply screamed unkempt, but somehow, he wasn't absolutely repulsive. In fact, underneath the scruffiness was a finely-sculpted facial structure which, combined with the aura of effortless nonchalance wrapped around him, made him almost desirable. Almost.

He looked back and gave her a sort of apologetic smile, and a pair of dimples formed on his cheeks as his lips stretched upward. "I apologize on behalf of all decent guys left in the world for that jerk-off," he told her.

"It was neither your concern or business to interfere," Harribel replied coolly as she finished stirring a Sunrise cocktail and handing it off. In her brief experience serving at the most popular nightclub in the entire prefecture, she'd come to realize that there were two kinds of men: those who put on a facade of kindness and chivalry to woo females and then drop them and their masks as they leave in the middle of the night, and those who were straight up about their devious intentions.

Harribel believed that this one fell into the former category, which she absolutely despised. At least the latter group was honest about what they wanted.

When he didn't leave the bar when she ignored him, she turned and asked, "Can I help you with anything else?"

"Well, normally I wouldn't do this-" he started, and Harribel decided to head him off then and there.

"No, I would not like to go out on a date with you," she answered with as level a voice as she could muster. "I am not interested in you."

"I thought you'd say that," the man replied, his smile growing wider and his dimples getting larger. "My best friend over there just found out that he was cheated on by his fiancee, and he's feeling kinda down. What he needs right now is a confidence boost; finding out that your intended is banging the pool boy, the gardener, and the housekeeper's a pretty big blow to a fella's ego, y'know?"

"No, I don't know," Harribel deadpanned, but she glanced in the direction he was indicating. A slip of a man with short, disheveled black hair was slumped over a table, his shoulders heaving in a manner that suggested that he was sobbing.

"So I was thinking that maybe you could just walk over briefly with some drinks, drop 'em off at the table, give him a wink or something to get his hopes up."

"But I don't intend to go out with him either," Harribel said, wondering what this strange human was talking about.

"No, I don't expect you to," the man said, shaking his head with another apologetic smile. "Sorry, I'm not making much sense. I've known this guy for twenty-two years, he won't act on any signals you give him, but if he sees that you're at least giving signals then that might be the traction he needs to get out of this rut he's been thrown into. He's gay, you see."

Harribel considered this human's proposal, and then made a decision. "Four thousand yen," she said. "Plus the cost of whatever drinks you're going to get."

The man grinned, "You drive a hard bargain, Ms..." his eyes flickered to her chest, and for a moment she wanted to punch him in the face until she realized that he was checking her name tag, "...Harribel. But I can't put a price on my friend's happiness." He dug into his pocket and fished in his wallet for a ten thousand yen note. "Three shots of Jagermeister and two mugs of Sapporo will be my drink order."

"There is too much here for that," Harribel said after tallying up the cost in her head, but the man shrugged.

"Keep it," he said. "Money's not such a big thing for me. And thank you for doing this for him. It means a lot."

Harribel sighed as he left through the crowd around the bar. How did that human get me to agree to this? she idly thought as she grabbed a platter. She set three shot glasses onto it and measured out some Jagermeister into them, then popped the tabs of two Sapporo cans and set a pair of iced mugs onto the platter before picking it up and waving one of the waitresses to take over at the bar for a moment.

She skillfully dodged drunken dancers as she made her way toward the table that the man and his friend were sitting at, and stopped short in front of them. The black-haired man whose intended was unfaithful glanced up, then did a double-take, his jaw dropping down a few inches before the brown-haired man reached over and slapped it shut again.

After a brief glance towards the man who'd approached her, she rolled her eyes, then gave the sad fellow a smoldering look before affecting a small, sultry smile and a devious wink as she set down the platter's contents. As she walked away, she turned and glanced back at the man, who had a thunderstruck expression on his face.

"See, you've even got ladies vying for your attention, Jeff," the brown-haired man said, clapping his friend on the shoulder before raising a shot and toasting him. "Learn from your mistakes, and this whole clusterfuck of a wedding won't just be for nothing. C'mon, let's toast to you bein' single again, huh? I saw one of those boys over there giving you the eye..."

The black-haired man, Jeff, hesitated, then gave his friend a rueful smile while grabbing up a shot glass of his own and they clinked the containers together before throwing the liquid down their gullets.

"Thanks a bunch, Lou," Jeff said as he ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know where I'd be without you, man."

"Probably somewhere a good education might've gotten you," Lou replied with a grin. Harribel's keen senses allowed her to watch the episode unfold from her station at the bar, and wondered again just what was wrong with the human named Lou.

* * *

A few hours later, Harribel watched warily as Lou wandered back over to the bar and took an empty seat near her station. His friend, Jeff, was in the writhing mob the humans called a dance floor with some dark-skinned young man he'd met.

"I see that your ploy worked," Harribel remarked as he settled himself in.

He shrugged. "What can I say? I've got a gift for getting people out of the occasional funk. I'm just that kinda guy. Could I get some Jameson on the rocks, please?"

Harribel nodded and began fixing up the drink, grabbing some ice and the bottle of John Jameson's Irish Whiskey. "I don't think I've seen you around the club before," she said on a whim. She'd never usually made small-talk with any of her customers, but this man seemed...different.

"I'm not really one of those guys who gets their kicks going to random clubs and picking up random chicks," Lou replied, nodding his thanks when Harribel handed him the glass of amber liquid. "I'm only here 'cause Jeff needed to get his depressing ass out and have a bit of fun."

"The news of his fiancee must have hit him rather hard," Harribel stated, wiping down a recently-vacated spot on the bar.

"Like the proverbial ton of bricks everyone talks about," said Lou, nodding as he sipped on the fiery drink. "Wouldn't you feel somewhat similar? Having to find out the hard way that your significant other is sneaking around behind your back?"

Harribel didn't know exactly what that would feel like, having no recollection of any significant other in her past life before becoming a hollow, and certainly none after that time. Nevertheless, she nodded with a vague, "I suppose."

Lou turned, leaning his elbows on the bar as he watched his friend dancing with a random blonde guy. "He really loved that man, too. Poor fella."

"Love is a fragile thing," Harribel said, surprising herself with the sage-like tone her voice had taken, "it can fall apart so very easily." She didn't know where that had come from, and quite frankly didn't care to know.

"Only if it's weak," Lou replied casually, turning his head to give her a sidelong look. "If the love shared by two people is strong enough, it'll last lifetimes." Harribel suddenly shivered at his words, and wondered what in the world was wrong with her tonight.

"And anyway," he continued, moving his gaze back to the dance floor, "the world could use a little more love. God knows that there's enough bad shit out there. We could all use a little bit of comfort and care once in awhile."

"You sound like someone twice your age," Harribel commented. She should know; she was almost seventy-eight in Material World measure.

"I've just had a lot of time to think about things," Lou admitted. "I fancy myself as a modern-day philosopher, but really I'm just a lazy idiot who can't seem to find anyone to sell my stories to. But as that old saying goes, se la vie."

"Excuse me?"

"Ah, sorry," Lou said apologized with a smile. "It's French for 'that is life."

"Indeed it is," Harribel offered, understanding. "So you're a writer then?"

Lou nodded as he said, "Yeah. Or, at least I wanna be. Nobody wants to publish something written by some guy who dropped out of high school in the ninth grade and who hasn't kept a steady job since then." He shrugged with a small laugh. "I'm only living the way I am now because my parents died and left me a whole heap of money that I can't seem to get rid of even if my life depended on it."

"Persistence is the key," said Harribel.

"That it is," Lou agreed, raising his glass to her. "If at first you don't succeed, go to a corner and cry for a bit, then try again." He offered her a rueful smile. "That's what I did the first time they rejected me. Didn't even stop to read a sentence. Of course, I could've been a little more subtle in the way I handled it."

"How do you mean?"

"I ran past the security in the biggest publishing company in Karakura, up twelve flights of stairs, burst into the editor in chief's office and said, 'You just found yourself the next James Patterson, buddy!' Approximately two seconds later, five guards grabbed me and tossed me out on my backside."

A strange noise issued from Harribel's throat that sounded suspiciously like the idiotic giggles she heard from some of the women at the club, but surely she wasn't physically capable of such things? "Perhaps you could have gone about it in a better manner. Well, don't worry. I'm sure somebody will find your writings worthy of mass production. They can't be that bad, can they?"

"I sure as hell hope not," Lou said, chuckling as he finished the liquor in his glass. "How much do I owe you?"

Harribel considered it for a moment, then said, "This one's on the house. It's not very often that I'm able to hold a civilized conversation while I'm at work, and you helped me to pass the time quickly."

Lou gave a genuine smile that lit up his face. "Well, thank you for a decent conversation as well, Harribel. I'd better get going before your bouncers kick me out; it's almost closing time, right?"

The bartender glanced at her cellular phone's display, which told her that it was about two minutes to three in the morning, which was when everything officially closed up for the night. "So it is. Goodbye...Lou, right?"

"Yup," he answered. "Louis Lycaeon, to be exact. It was a pleasure to meet you, Tia Harribel." And with that, he stood from the stool, stretched a bit, then went over to talk to his friend. Thanks to her superior hearing, Harribel could make it out easily, now that there were much fewer people in the club.

"You gonna need a ride, or..." Lou let it hang for a second, and his friend, Jeff, picked it up.

"Nah, I'm going home with Yosuke here," he said, indicating a handsome young man. "Thanks a million for tonight, Lou. I owe you big time."

"You don't owe me shit, buddy," Lou smiled, clapping his friend on the back. "That's what friends are for, remember? Just...uh, use protection, 'kay?"

* * *

Thirty minutes later, after Harribel and the other bartenders had finished cleaning all the used glasses and mugs and the tips were divvied out, she pulled on her coat and scarf and walked out...

...right into the middle of a snowstorm. Harribel cursed herself for not having brought any boots, and for not having a motor vehicle, which she realized now was essential to life as a human. Through the thick snowfall, she spotted a lone car in the parking lot, with its hood up and a light hooked to it, casting the figure bent over the engine in a warm-looking orange glow.

Hoping that it was one of the other bartenders, Harribel strode quickly toward the car, snow crunching crisply under her flats, and knocked lightly on the top of the hood to get the owner's attention.

Chestnut hair flailed wildly as none other than Lou's head flew up. He had a bottle of antifreeze in his hand, and a socket wrench and a dirty rag were resting on the front bumper.

"Oh, hello again," he said with a smile.

"Having a bit of car trouble?"

"Not really, I just wanted to clean my spark plugs and top 'er off," he said, gesturing to the tool and rag with the bottle. "Can't ever be too careful in a blizzard. I had to put on my snow chains, too. Where's your car?"

" I don't have one," admitted Harribel. "I thought you were one of the other bartenders, and I came over to ask for a ride, but..."

"Oh, well, where do you live?" asked Lou, replacing the cap on the bright red bottle before turning off the light, unhooking it, and grabbing all of his supplies and dropping the hood. Harribel followed him to the back of the car, where he replaced his burden in the trunk.

"Not very far; a few blocks, maybe."

"I could give you a ride, if you don't mind, that is..." He let his comment hang, just as he had done with his friend, Jeff, earlier.

"That would be nice," Harribel said with a grateful smile.

"'Kay, then, hop in." Lou unlocked the doors and jumped in, tossing his jacket into the back seat and pushing a button, which started the car. Soft music flowed from the speakers, and warmth spilled out of the vents, which Harribel leaned into after buckling her seat belt. She wasn't one to complain, but cold and Tia Harribel didn't exactly mix well.

"Do you know where the small book shop is near the park?" Harribel asked as a way of giving direction. Lou nodded, so she continued. "My house is right next to it."

"Okay then," he said, maneuvering the vehicle down the street. There were a few minutes of silence, permeated only by the gently purring engine and the lovely music, which Harribel couldn't quite place.

"What kind of instrument is this?" she asked finally, gesturing towards the radio.

"Piano," Lou said with an expression that told Harribel that she should've known that...if she was human, that is. "I dabble, but I'm no expert. My little sister, on the other hand, can play circles around me. I'm surprised that you didn't recognize the sound."

"Well," Harribel said with a sheepish smile as she tried to salvage the situation, "when you work at a place that bumps idiotic dance music like I do, you kind of lose track of what actual music sounds like."

Lou laughed at that. "True, true. So, if you don't mind my asking, who do you live with? I mean, I doubt that a bartender makes enough money to own a house."

Harribel considered her options. She could lie, she could tell him to mind his own business, or she could tell him the truth. The first option was plausible, since he didn't even know her and would probably never see her again. The second choice seemed a bit too harsh, since this human was actually not so bad. Then she thought about the third, and decided it wouldn't hurt anything.

"I live with my fracc...er my three friends," she said, "although sometimes, it feels like I'm their babysitter with the way they act."

Lou nodded. "I've got my younger sister and brother to look after, so I can kind of understand how that is. Is it that one, there?" he asked, pointing to a small building wedged between a bookstore and a much larger, two-story house.

Harribel nodded. "That's the one." After Lou parked and unlocked the door, Harribel turned to him with a thankful smile. "Thank you for the ride. I probably would've frozen if I'd walked."

Lou smiled back. "Nah, you're too hot for that." For some reason, Harribel's cheeks burned as he said that. "Have a nice night, Tia Harribel."

"Goodnight, Louis Lycaeon," she replied, wondering if she'd caught a cold or something. She opened the door, grabbed her coat out of the back seat, and hurried from the warmth of the car to the warmth of her home.

As usual, two of her fracciones were at the window, waiting for her, and when they saw her get out of a car driven by a man, they went crazy. Sung-Sun was the only one absent because she had to wake up early for her job at the bookstore next to them.

"Harribel-sama! What did that jerk do to you?" Apacci asked, immediately jumping to the worst conclusion. "'Cause I'll break his arms and castrate him for you, if you like."

"As if you could fight your way out of a paper bag, Horny," Mila Rose scoffed. Before the pair could get into a full-blown fight, Harribel interfered.

"Cut it out, you two," she admonished, watching the car through the window as it drove off into the storm. "That man did nothing to me, except help me out."

"Men only want one thing," Apacci sneered, "and it ain't helping out damsels in distress."

"For once, I agree with the flat-chested loser," Mila Rose added. "Men are pigs, and that's the end of it. Chivalry's long dead, Harribel-sama."

Harribel was still staring at the point where Louis's car vanished in the white-out and couldn't help but think, Maybe not...

* * *

**Author's Note: **'Kay, that's it for now. The name of the bar Harribel works at is a Japanese attempt at saying "Donkey Punch," but it's obviously exaggerated for humor's sake. Um...oh, ten-thousand yen is, like, a hundred and fourteen dollars (US) or eighty-six euros, give or take, so you can probably figure out the precise costs in this chapter pretty easily, and if you can't you can do what I did and look it up on the Interwebz. Y'know, that thing you use to look up porn.

So, I suppose that's it. I'd really like it if you reviewed and gave me your thoughts on my story.


	2. Seems Legit

**Author's Note:** Here's the next chapter.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything but myself.

* * *

**Chapter 2:**** Seems Legit**

* * *

Grimmjow Jaegerjacques was _not_ pleased. Not only had that bastard Urahara gotten him a job as a janitor of all fucking things, but the blonde dick-licker had gotten him a janitorial job at _Karakura High School._

The former Sexta Espada grumbled under his breath as he mopped up some snot-nosed kid's puke while students passed by, chuckling at his misfortune. That Kurosaki bastard never let him live it down, either.

Growling in anger, Grimmjow wheeled his janitorial cart into one of the many janitor's closets before trudging down the hall to his 'office,' which was really just another closet he'd shoved a desk and chair into. He flicked on the lights to find that someone was already in his chair.

"Greetings, Grimmjow."

Grimmjow's eye twitched. "What do you want, Tercera?"

"I need someone to do a bit of reconnaissance," Harribel said levelly. "Normally, I would have one of my fracciones do this, but they are otherwise occupied. Ulquiorra is out of town at the moment, Lilynette is in school, and I wouldn't trust Starrk to do anything except laze about."

"So what, you think I'll just drop everything and do your bidding?" Grimmjow spat. "I don't have to listen to you."

"I'll pay."

Grimmjow's ears twitched. "Now we're talking..."

* * *

Louis Lycaeon wasn't an overly cautious man. In fact, he was rather lax when it came to caution. He flowed along with the tide of life; he had very few ambitions, his only real goal was to get his books published, and most of what he'd accomplished so far was circumstantial at best, and absolute dumb luck at worst. The very fact that he was even in Japan at all was simple happenstance.

But even so, Louis realized he was being followed.

It had started around the time he'd gotten up and went to the fridge for some milk. He had a very bad memory, but he did know that there was a full half-gallon of milk when he'd gone to sleep the night before. Now the carton was gone.

When he'd gotten into his car to go to the market, there had been a thump on the car. When he'd passed a glass-fronted store, he'd noticed a turquoise-haired man crouched on top of the car. When he was shopping in the market, he'd noticed the same man following him.

Finally, as he was getting out of his car back at the apartment he had a lease on, he confronted the stranger on the roof of his car.

"Um, this might be a stupid question," he began, "but who are you and what are you doing on my car?"

"I'm Grimmjow Jaegerjacques, and I'm following you for the Tercera," came the man's reply. "What's it to ya?"

"Oh," Lou said. _Ask a stupid question..._"Okay. Well, if you don't mind my asking, who, exactly, is the Tercera and what are they the third of?"

"You speak Spanish," was the mildly surprised response. "Okay, for that, I'll answer you. The Tercera's that bitch, Harribel."

The name sparked a recent memory in Lou's mind. Harribel was the name of that bartender at the Dankee Panchuru, if he wasn't mistaken. "Why'd she want you to follow me? And why aren't you being more...well, sneaky?"

"She wants me to figure out what's wrong with you," the man called Grimmjow said, cleaning out his ear with a finger. "And I don't really care if you know I'm watching you or not. 'Snot like I give a damn what the dumb bitch does in her spare time, as long as she pays me."

"Oh. Okay. Well, I don't know what to tell you, but there's nothing wrong with me. At least, not that I'm aware of."

Grimmjow scoffed. "You're an idiot. Harribel doesn't know what to make of you. She's always been wary of men, and when she came across you, she got all paranoid."

"What?" Lou was confused.

"That retarded woman thinks all guys are chauvinistic bastards who only wanna bang...which isn't too far from the truth," Grimmjow admitted. "But then you waltz in with your strange tendencies and throw her off balance. So she naturally comes to the conclusion that there's something wrong with you."

Lou didn't argue that Grimmjow had a few strange tendencies as well, such as standing on the roof of his car. "And you're telling me all this...why?"

"'Cause it's the easiest way to get back at her," Grimmjow said as if it were obvious. "Can't beat her up..."

"Because she's a girl?"

"No. I literally _can't_beat her up," he growled. "Believe me, I've tried."

"...oh. Well, okay then. Bye."

"Later."

* * *

That night, Harribel was once again working the bar. It was slow, so she couldn't complain, but even so, the patrons who usually come in on a Tuesday night are usually not the best company. So far, she'd had to deal with three grabby men, helped the bouncers to break up a bar fight before it got too out of hand, and thrown an entirely too perverted man bodily from the club.

"Can I get a Jameson on the rocks, please?" Harribel didn't even glance up, but grabbed the tall bottle, dropped a few ice cubes into a glass, and poured the Irish whiskey over the frozen water.

She looked up to hand the glass to the patron and found herself across the bar from the strange human she'd met the night before.

He passed her a thousand yen bill and settled into the bar stool. "So, rumor has it that you've been paying some blue-haired weirdo to follow me," he started in a nonchalant tone, as if commenting about the news that afternoon.

Harribel frowned. She'd told Grimmjow to be subtle...then again, she had known that there was absolutely _nothing_subtle about the Sexta. "I don't know what you mean," she answered back primly.

"So the name Grimmjow Jaegerjacques would mean nothing at all to you, then?" Lou shot back, the corners of his lips doing a strange quivering motion. He hid it by taking a gulp of his drink and watched Harribel's eyes widen a fraction. Nothing too noticeable, though; she doubted that he would notice.

_That idiot_, Harribel thought, _he actually made contact with the target!? How dense is that fool? _"Sounds like some over-the-top idol's ridiculous stage name," she countered, still feigning ignorance.

The twitching in his lips was getting more violent. "By the way, Grimmjow told me to tell you that you're...how did he put it? Oh yeah: 'A dumb, retarded bitch, if she thinks that I'd actually do what she asked me.'"

"I should've known that bastard would fail," she growled, then winced, realizing that she'd just admitted to knowing the insane Sixth. Lou snorted in amusement. "I mean...um..."

"You could've just asked me yourself, you know," he said, leaning casually on his elbows as he sipped his whiskey. "I'm pretty much an open book to anyone who's curious enough." Harribel had the decency to look ashamed. "Look, I don't know what to tell you, but I don't think there's something wrong with me. _Different_, maybe, but nothing wrong."

Harribel sighed. "I come from a place where chauvinism runs rampant, and those with power take what they want from those without. I suppose meeting you made me wary."

"Yeah, Grimmjow said something along those lines. He also said that you've kicked his ass a couple times, leading me to believe that you're one of those few with power to take what they want," Lou said. "That guy's kinda..." he paused, searching for the right word.

"...insane?" Harribel supplied with a small smile.

"I was gonna say _strange_, but that works, too," Lou replied, grinning. "His idea of following me involved drinking my milk and then riding on the roof of my car while I drove to the store to pick some more up."

"The fool," Harribel muttered, shaking her head. "Why I even went to the Sexta in the first place..."

"Yeah, I've been meaning to ask about that," Lou said, interrupting her thoughts. "What's the deal with the number system, anyway? From what I understand, he's sixth, and you're third, and since you're stronger than he is, I'm assuming that the numbers are a count-down."

Harribel's eyes widened slightly. This human was incredibly perceptive. Perhaps too perceptive for his own good.

"It would be wise of you not to pry in these kinds of things," she said evasively.

Lou fixed her with a shrewd gaze that held a glint of curiosity, then shrugged and downed the rest of his drink. "Well, I suppose if you won't tell me, then it's not for me to know. So, what would you like to know about me?"

Over the next two or three hours, Harribel learned much about the human named Louis Lycaeon. He had moved to Japan from his native land called the United States of America with his friend Jeff after both of them had dropped out of high school. He boarded the plane with nothing but the clothes on his back, a suitcase full of notebooks, and the tickets to Japan they'd won on a local radio station.

The two of them had scrounged up a living working at a gaming store for the better part of four years, living in a cramped two-room apartment and eating nothing but instant ramen and the occasional sushi roll. Then, during their fifth year on the island, Lou had received news of his parents' death, as well as the custody of his brother and sister.

After coming into the inheritance he'd mentioned during their first meeting and finding a larger apartment in Karakura, said brother and sister, fraternal twins, had been flown in and they had settled in quite nicely.

He was a fairly good athlete, but he lacked proper ambition. He was also a rather good musician, but again, there was no drive to continue on once he'd reached a certain level. There were several books that he was in the process of writing, but when Harribel asked Lou if he had completed any works, she got the answer that she had already expected.

"Nope," he said with what she was coming to find was his signature grin. "Every time that I start one, I always get an idea for another one, and I start on that one, only to get another idea. I try to finish the first one, but I have what doctors call Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, which means that my mind is always flitting from one thought to another, and it takes an awful lot of concentration for me to stay on one thought. And one thing that you've probably gathered by now is that concentration is a commodity that I have very little of."

"I'd noticed," Harribel responded dryly.

"So..." he started, then trailed off.

"What?"

"Uh, did you figure out what's wrong with me yet?" he asked.

"I believe that I have discovered it," Harribel answered after a moment. "You lack initiative. This is one of the main reasons why you are not like other men. There is also little ambition in you, and then there is that...what did you call it? Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder? This is my supposition: All of these become a watershed for your ability to not act like a slavering baboon when faced with a beautiful woman simply because you are too lazy. I know of a person like this."

"And...that's a good thing, right?"

Harribel offered him a smile. "Yes, that is a very good thing."

The rest of the night was spent in comfortable conversation, except when Lou began trying to ask of Harribel's past, at which point, she started to clam up. This caused him to hurriedly switch topics, and she became less tense and more open.

Finally, it was closing time, and Lou offered her a ride home again, which she gratefully accepted.

Once inside her house, she was again bombarded by her fracciones' frantic questioning of whether or not they should chase down the human and rip him to shreds.

"Ladies, compose yourselves," she commanded, and they shut up instantly. "This man is not like others. He has a rare disorder that allows him to not act like a bumbling fool around women of our physical beauty. He is...different."

Apacci and Mila Rose had nothing to say to this, but the doubt in their eyes spoke volumes.


	3. Curiosity

**Author's Note: **Sorry for the wait, but I had writer's block like nobody's business. Anyway, here's the next chapter...obviously.

**Disclaimer: **Not mine, don't own it.

* * *

**Chapter 3:**** Curiosity**

* * *

Louis Lycaeon and Geoffrey Alder sat on the roof of their top-floor apartment, sitting on the simple lawn chairs they'd set up beside a space heater and sharing a twelve-pack of some Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. It was hard to come by in these parts of the world, but it was worth every yen spent for them to have a taste of their homeland.

"So, whatever happened to that lovely little bartender you sic'ed on me the other night?" Jeff asked casually, squinting up at the mid-afternoon sun.

"Turns out she thought I was defective somehow," Lou replied with a bit of a chuckle.

"Not too far from the truth, eh?" Jeff said. Lou was quiet for a moment, seemingly lost in thought.

Finally, he said, "There's something weird about her, that's for sure. She's a bombshell, no doubt, but my instincts are just screaming at me to stay away from her, that she's more dangerous than anything I've ever met."

Jeff glanced incredulously at his friend. "I highly doubt that, Lou. I mean, not to sound arrogant or anything, but we've come up against some pretty dangerous shit in our day. Hell, you're the most dangerous sumbitch I know of. If she's something that _you_ can't handle, then I'm getting the hell out of Japan."

Lou snorted and took a drink from the aluminum can in his grip. "No matter how bad you think you are, there's always something badder, a scarier monster, if you'll forgive the pun."

Jeff simply gave him an ironic smirk.

They sat in an easy silence that could be shared only by lifelong friends for a few more minutes, then they heard the slam of a door below them and the patter of stockinged feet on carpet. A scant few seconds later, the door that led up to the roof from the apartment burst open, revealing Florence and Phillip Lycaeon, Lou's younger siblings.

They were twelve years old, Lou's juniors by nearly half. Both had the same pale blue eyes as he did, and the same basic facial structure, but that was where the similarities to their brother ended. Phillip, though still taking his first shaky steps into adolescence, was already tall, barely a head shorter than Lou's five foot-eleven frame, while Florence was roughly shorter than her twin by the same degree, and both had hair the color of platinum, so blonde that it was almost white.

Florence was first through the door, a veritable ball of energy, while her twin ambled up the stairs at a more sedate pace, both of them grinning the same grin that was so frequently on Lou's, dimples and all.

Lou had only a second to react when Florence flung herself at him, but he was off his chair, beer set down carefully, and arms out within that single second to catch her. He swung her around in the air, eliciting a delighted giggle from his sister before setting her down and wrapping an arm around Phillip.

"Hey, guys," he said. "How was school?"

"Great!" gushed Florence. "Me and Karin kicked so much ass at soccer today, it was almost sad."

"Almost?"

"It's the other team's fault for not being nearly as badass as we were," Florence scoffed. Phillip rolled his eyes.

"And by badass, you mean tripping over your own feet and getting the ball into the net by pure luck?" he asked innocently, to which Florence responded by punching him in the shoulder.

"Still went in," she grumbled.

"And that's all that counts," finished Lou. "Got any homework today?"

Florence didn't answer, but Phillip offered up, "We need to do a few pages in our math workbook, and then do some translations, but that shouldn't be too much trouble," he paused, glanced at his sister, then added, "at least for one of us."

Lou chuckled and cuffed his brother lightly on the head. "Now don't be mean, Flip. Help your sister with her homework, would ya? I'm gonna make us a good old-fashioned meatloaf dinner tonight, sound good?"

The prospect of a home-cooked American-style dinner was enough for both twins' eyes to light up in anticipation.

"Go on, then, and finish up whatever you gotta do while I go pick up some stuff. Jeff, you cool to watch 'em for a bit?"

Jeff, who'd been watching the by-play between the siblings with humor in his eyes, drained his beer and nodded.

"Cool." The twins had already scurried down the stairs, and as he watched them go, a somewhat sad smile curved his lips.

"What's wrong?" Jeff asked.

"You know what," was his friend's reply. "However much I wish that they don't end up like me, the Lycaeon blood is too strong for it not to manifest itself. Maybe with the change in locale, it'll show up later in life, but they're gonna find out sooner or later."

"It's already four years late," Jeff countered argumentatively. "You manifested when you were eight. They might not even have the gene."

"I'm an exception," Lou muttered, an uncharacteristic scowl twisted his visage. "I was the _pride and joy of the Lycaeon clan_. The culmination of a thousand years of good breeding." At the last word, his scowl turned fierce and angry.

"Then hope that the twins aren't like you," Jeff said softly. "Pray that they have good enough luck that they didn't get it passed onto them."

At Jeff's words, the scowl slowly melted off Lou's face, to be replaced by the sad smile. "You know hope's a four-letter word."

And with that, he leapt off the six-story apartment roof to the pavement below.

Jeff walk slowly to the edge of the building and found that his friend had vanished. "Poor guy," he whispered to the wind.

* * *

Usually, Apacci, Mila Rose, or Sung-Sun did the shopping for the quartet of displaced Arrancar who lived in the house next to the bookstore. Usually.

Harribel scowled at the shelves upon shelves of foodstuffs, pushing a shopping cart around the market and occasionally glaring at the list of supplies she needed to procure. Her fracciones were all engaged in their occupations, leaving her to forage for food. She knew she shouldn't blame them for this, but she did anyway.

Eventually, she had gathered all the items on said list and headed up to the check-out. When the cashier told her the amount of currency it would cost, she nodded and reached into her jacket pocket, only to find that she had left her wallet at the house.

_Shit_, she cursed silently while offering the girl behind the counter an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, I must have left my money at home."

"I got this one," said a familiar voice behind her. Harribel whirled around, instincts overwhelming common sense as she aimed a knife-hand at the person behind her.

While not as powerful as she had been in her spiritual body, not by far, this gigai was certainly beyond human capabilities, so when she found her strike gently deflected upwards, she was rather surprised. When her eyes met nearly colorless ones a few inches above her, her surprise grew even more.

"I did not know you studied martial arts, Louis Lycaeon," she said, withdrawing her hand warily.

"I just have good reflexes, I guess," Lou said with a smile that, though Harribel couldn't be certain, seemed to be just a bit forced.

_Good reflexes indeed,_ she thought to herself.

"Anyways, like I said, I'll cover you this time," Lou continued. The cashier gave him a smile that was a little too friendly for Harribel's tastes as she rang up his items. He handed over some money, and the two of them left the store together carrying plastic bags.

"I do not see your car anywhere," Harribel noted.

"Store's not too far from where I live," he explained. "I could use a bit of exercise every now and again. Can't get too fat or you'd stop hanging out with me."

"Appearance is not the reason I associate with you, Louis Lycaeon," Harribel answered matter-of-factly. Then she thought of that gargantuan fraccion of the Segunda Espada and amended, "Although, there is a certain point where I would draw the line."

Lou's laugh was delighted. "I didn't know you knew how to make jokes, Tia."

"Despite what you might think, I do possess a sense of humor," Harribel said, a bit of chagrin coloring her tone.

"Alright, alright," Lou conceded. "Hey, would you like to come have dinner with my family? I'm making meatloaf," he added tantalizingly, as if it would help sweeten the deal.

Harribel considered it. While she _had_ just gotten sustenance for her gigai to maintain itself regularly, it would be foolish to simply pass up an opportunity to conserve her own food and eat Louis' offered meal.

"Very well," she finally agreed, "although I'm not quite certain what 'meatloaf' is, exactly."

Lou only laughed at her as he led her back to his home. It was placed, much to Harribel's surprise (and growing suspicion), only a scant two blocks away from Urahara Kisuke's shoten, and just about the same distance away from the Kurosaki family clinic, where she had been forced to go when her gigai had caught the influenza virus (and what a horrid week _that_ had been; she had faced Hollow and shinigami taicho that would annihilate lesser beings, yet a microscopic creature had brought her low as simply as it took for her to breathe. Insidious didn't even _begin_ to describe it).

"Do you, by chance, know Kurosaki Ichigo?" Harribel asked curiously as they made their way up the stairs to his apartment.

"Scowly kid, bright orange hair?" Lou shot back, and when his guest nodded, he grinned. "My sister and his sister play soccer together. Don't know him on a personal level, but we've met. Seems like an alright guy, a lot more mature than most kids his age." He sighed, and his eyes got a faraway look to them. "He must've had to grow up quickly for him to have eyes like those."

Harribel noticed the melancholy tone in his voice. "You sound as though you have experience with such matters," she prompted softly.

"Well," he said after a moment, "sometimes great power comes with great responsibility. I've seen strong men taken down by their own lust for power overwhelming their better judgement, and it's not pretty. Those who manage to keep their wits always have the same eyes, and that kid's got 'em, just like I do."

"And what is your great power?" she asked, already knowing Kurosaki Ichigo's power, witnessing it first-hand, seeing him deliver the final blow to the man she had followed for so long.

A smirk played at Lou's features. "If I told you, you'd run away screaming."

Harribel took that as a challenge to her courage. "I doubt anything _you _could tell me would scare me, Louis Lycaeon, for I am not so easily frightened."

For a moment, Lou seemed to consider it, but then they stopped outside a door marked with a 'ten'. "Maybe I'll tell you some other time, Tia. For now, you'll want to prepare yourself to meet the whirling dervishes I call my siblings."

And he opened the door, only to be immediately bombarded by two small, silvery missiles. When Harribel realized that they were small human children, she relaxed and inspected them more closely. While one was female and the other male, they seemed remarkably similar in appearance, having the same hair and eye coloration as the other, and their features also bore a strong resemblance to their older brother.

"Lou, Flip isn't helping me with my translations," whined the female, shooting her counterpart an accusatory glare.

"Lou, Flo isn't letting me concentrate on _my _translations," retorted the male, making a face at his sister.

"Hey, can it or I'll just let Jeff whip up some sukiyaki for dinner," threatened Lou, and both of them instantly paled and started stammering apologies, to which Lou laughed heartily. "Okay, now get over there and let our guest come inside, rather than stand outside our doorway."

His comment finally turned the attention of the twins toward Tia, who suddenly felt rather awkward. She had never had to associate with a being so young before; the closest thing she would be able to compare it to would be Lillinette Gingerback, the tiny fragment of the Primera Espada which usually resided in the body of a prepubescent female, but that was entirely different.

So instead, she mustered her charm and spoke. "Greetings. My name is Tia Harribel. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

For a moment, the two of them just stared at her, both scrutinizing her just as closely as she had done to them moments before. Finally, the girl said, "Are you gonna have sex with my brother?"

Lou made a strangled noise that, to Harribel, sounded not dissimilar to the death shriek of her prey in Hueco Mundo, and he quickly clapped a hand over the girl's mouth. "Haha!" he said with a fake smile and a red face. "Don't kids say the stupidest shit sometimes? Come in, make yourself at home."

As Harribel entered, she glanced around at her new surroundings. The apartment was large enough for the Lycaeon siblings and Jeff to live in comfortably, but it was...she didn't quite know what the proper term was for what she would describe the place as. Snug? No, that didn't sound right. The walls were hung with many picture frames with various combinations of the four tenants, as well as other people Harribel didn't recognize, while the furniture was tasteful and colorful without being too much of an eyesore (very much unlike the drab, pale rooms of Las Noches).

In the living room, the television was tuned to one of the reality shows that Apacci was so fond of, with Lou's friend Jeff planted on the sofa with a beer can clutched in his hand. When they entered, he stood up and offered his hand to Harribel. Upon closer inspection, she found that Jeff's hands were immaculately clean, and the skin there was smoother than even hers.

"Hello, it's nice to properly meet you," he said. "My name is Geoffrey Alder, and the twin terrors over there are Phillip and Florence Lycaeon respectively."

"Tia Harribel," she replied evenly as she took a seat on one of the two chairs in the room. Phillip and Florence took the remaining space on the couch and simply stared at her, something that unnerved her to no end. This in itself was cause for suspicion, as she had faced down much more terrifying creatures than _children_, and yet these two...she suppressed a shudder. It was as though she were being eyed by a pair of young predators.

Phillip was the first to address her after they had taken their seats. "I apologize for my sister's word vomit. She's never been as sophisticated and charming as myself."

Before Harribel could respond, Florence smacked her brother in the back of the head. "Who wants to be a weird little loser like you anyway?" Then she turned to Harribel wearing an almost shy expression. "I _am_ sorry, though, for that. It's just that you're really pretty, and I've never actually seen my brother with a girl before."

Harribel took a moment to compose a proper answer. "That's quite alright...Florence, right?"

The girl gave her a dazzling smile as she nodded. "Yeah, that's me, but you can call me Flo for short if you want. So how did you and Lou meet?"

"We met at my place of work, a bar called Dankee Panchuru," Harribel replied. "He prevented a man from groping me, then proceeded to ask me to cheer up Geoffrey."

"Isn't a donkey punch when you-" began Phillip, but Lou rushed out from the kitchen and kicked the boy in the shin.

"Phil, now's not the time to show off your vast, wildly inappropriate knowledge of sex acts," Lou muttered as his younger brother clutched his leg. "Seriously, how the hell you know that kind of crap is beyond me. _I _didn't know what a donkey punch was until I was twenty!"

"Well, I must have more experience than you," Phillip shot back cheekily, which resulted in a monumental noogie from his elder. "Okay, okay, I'm _sorry_!"

"That's right you are," Lou said smugly, releasing his wriggling brother. "C'mon, food's ready."

Dinner was surprisingly good to Harribel, especially since neither she nor any of her fracciones knew how to cook very well. Sung-Sun was slowly getting the hang of using the oven, but chances of her making a decent meal were about the same as her burning the food and leaving a horrid stench in their small home. Therefore, it was with much gusto that she ate the 'meatloaf', 'mashed potatoes', and 'green bean casserole', all of which were very agreeable to her taste buds.

The conversation was a bit similar as well. While only one of the participants was female, the squabbling between Phillip, Florence, and Louis bore a stark resemblance to the petty arguments of her own fracciones, albeit without any of the actual venom Mila Rose, Apacci, and Sung-Sun usually injected into their more scathing remarks. It was very...familiar to Harribel, and she found herself relaxing marginally in the new setting much more easily than she normally would.

While the siblings kept up their playful banter, Geoffrey provided some more embarrassing facts about Lou that the man himself seemed to have omitted from their talks over the bar. Apparently, during a fishing trip with Jeff's late father, the inexperienced Lou had gotten a hook stuck in his thumb and tried to pry it out with a second hook, only for that one to get caught in Lou's flesh as well.

"That must have left quite the scar," Harribel observed, making sure to remember that humans didn't heal nearly half as fast (or as efficient) as even normal Hollow did. But for some reason, Jeff glanced toward his friend wearing an unreadable expression.

"Nah, some people have all the luck," he replied, his lips curving downward marginally. Harribel was intrigued by the reaction, but chose not to press the obviously sensitive matter.

Once the meal was finished and the twins were set the task of washing the soiled dishes, Lou offered to drive Harribel home, which she readily agreed to, as it had begun to snow while they had been inside.

"Your siblings are quite..." Harribel paused, searching for the right term. "...energetic."

A smile appeared on Lou's face. "Yeah. Sometimes, they can be a handful, but I wouldn't trade 'em for anything in the world. Do you have any siblings?"

Harribel shook her head wistfully. "I have no family, at least not that I can remember," she said. It was one of the worst parts of being Hollow. "But I have my fracc...that is, my friends, which is my equivalent. They are like little sisters to me, and I would die to see them safe."

"Well, they say that friends are the family we choose," Lou responded after a moment. "I know that I consider Jeff as my blood, no matter what anyone says, and you obviously care for your friends very deeply." He pulled up to the curb of Harribel's house and turned his faded-jeans eyes to her. "I admire that."

"You are quite admirable yourself," Harribel admitted, locking eyes with him. "You are unlike anyone I have met before, Louis Lycaeon, and I can't help but become even more intrigued with each meeting. You are a very curious individual, and..." she leaned forward until their faces were just an inch apart, "...I find myself wanting to unravel this mystery."

She closed her eyes and pressed forward, but was confused when she heard a strangled, "Hwa?" from Lou. Opening her eyes, she saw that her fracciones had noticed her arrival, and upon seeing their compromising situation, Mila Rose had jumped to conclusions and hauled Lou right out of the car through the window in a full headlock.

"I knew we couldn't trust this guy!" Apacci snarled from the other side of the car, leaping forward. Harribel suddenly feared for Lou's life. The gigai which Urahara had supplied them with limited the Arrancars' fighting abilities somewhat, but they were still outclassed any human limitations by far.

She was surprised, therefore, when Lou redirected Apacci's initial punch with a gentle push while still being half-strangled by Mila Rose. Quick as a flash, he wriggled his way free from Mila Rose's hold and backed away from the angry women post-haste.

"Hey, now, let's all just be calm about this-" Lou started, but then ducked quickly and swept his arm to the side, narrowly missing Apacci's shin and waving away Mila Rose's fist.

"You were molesting Harribel-sama!" Mila Rose shot at him. "There's nothing to be calm about!"

Harribel considered stopping her fracciones before they seriously hurt Lou, but remembered when he had redirected her attack in the grocery store and decided that it might be prudent for her to see exactly what this human was capable of.

After several minutes of watching the fight, Harribel frowned slightly. Despite the dozens of strikes sent his way, Lou had yet to actually attack the two women who were trying their hardest to take his head off. The style of martial art he used focused on energy redirection and blocks, and the only injury sustained during the fight was when Lou grabbed onto Apacci's arm and swung her around and accidentally rammed her into Mila Rose, who'd been trying to sneak up from behind.

"Oops," he mumbled, quickly releasing his grip as the other two fighters fell to the ground in a heap.

"Damn it, Mila Rose, you got in my way!" Apacci yelled as she extricated herself from the jumble of limbs.

"_I_ got in _your_ way?" Mila screeched back, and the two of them began going at it while Lou stood in the background, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

He glanced towards Harribel, who was rubbing her temples in irritation. "Ladies, please," she said, her tone of voice barely above her normal volume, yet the two other Arrancar ceased their fighting immediately, shooting each other a mild glare before turning back to Lou, intending to continue their assault on him.

As Mila Rose and Apacci stepped in for what they believed would be a finishing blow, Harribel suddenly appeared before them, arms crossed and a stern expression on her face.

"H-Harribel-sama," Apacci stammered. "What are you doing?"

"I have no intention of allowing you to harm him," Harribel stated calmly, though with steel in her voice that let her fracciones know she meant business.

"But he was trying to-" began Mila Rose, but Harribel cut in.

"_He_ was trying to do nothing," she said. "_I_ was the one who initiated the kiss, and I am rather upset about having it interrupted."

Apacci and Mila Rose looked at each other with a mix of embarrassment and shock before turning to look more closely at Lou, who waved awkwardly to them.

"Uh, hi," he said. "I'm Lou. Nice to meet you."

They stared at him blankly before turning to Harribel in askance.

"This is the person whom I have been occupying my free time with, girls," Harribel explained. "I met him at work, and after a bit of reconnaissance, I have found him to be an acceptable companion."

"I wouldn't call having Grimmjow 'follow' me around 'a bit of reconnaissance,' Tia," Lou said wryly, causing the two fracciones' heads to swivel back to him.

"You know Grimmjow?" Apache asked in astonishment.

"Yeah, well, he _was_ hitching a ride on top of my car," he replied with a shrug. "Told me that your housemate paid him to follow me around and stuff."

"But," Mila Rose said, directing her statement to Harribel, "he's _male_, Harribel-sama. What are you _thinking_?"

Harribel paused to consider the question. What exactly _was_ she thinking? Here she was, the third most powerful being in Hueco Mundo, and one of the strongest in all the dimensions, fraternizing with a lowly human without any sort of spiritual pressure whatsoever. And yet...

...and yet she knew that she _wasn't _thinking. She was a Hollow, a being of instinct and feeling, and her instinct and feelings were leading her directly to this lowly human, despite everything.

"I am thinking that Louis Lycaeon is the first male I've ever met that doesn't make me want to remove his spine through his stomach," Harribel said, a smile softening her features slightly.

"Wow," Lou said, amusement tinging his voice. "Coming from you, that's the best compliment I think I've ever gotten."

"And if you wouldn't mind, _girls_, I would like to continue my...conversation with Lou in a more private setting." And before her fracciones could even get in an word edgewise, Harribel grasped Lou's wrist and pulled him into the house behind her, closing the door with a snap and the sound of a deadbolt locking into place.

Mila Rose and Apacci gaped at each other in astonishment, then, after a quick pat of her pants, Apacci's face turned white. "I think Harribel-sama just locked us out."

The dark-skinned Arrancar had many thoughts running through her head, but she adequately and eloquently summed them all up in two words: "Well, shit."

* * *

**A Plea: **So, I'm not sure how many people are reading this thing for sure, but it's got at least five followers so I know you're out there. I have seven stories published, and two are completed. Every single one of them has at least twice the amount of reviews this one does.

Now, I know that since this story revolves around a relationship between a side-character and an OC, there won't be too many people who'll give this story a chance, but to you brave, beautiful few who have, I have one thing to say:

PLEASE REVIEW! I have absolutely no clue if I'm doing good on this thing, and I NEED your feedback so I can figure out if I've made any mistakes and, if so, how I can go about fixing them as quickly as possible.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, to everyone who's followed or favorited the story, thank you very much for your support. And to **Black Cat Angel** and **Fullmetal** Wetback: You are truly saints, and I love you with all my heart!

Until next time!


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